Our Baby!!

WE HAVE A BABY!!

Flora May Reitz

5 lbs. 15 oz.

18.5 in. long

born 09/15/09

at 7:15 AM

To everything....turn, turn, turn....

The title is appropriate lyrics by The Byrds to sing to our baby, who is still in breech position. Since she hasn't yet turned, we are now scheduled for a c-section. They simply won't deliver a breech baby naturally - too risky. So, unless this little one moves out of breech on her own, she will be welcomed into our big world on Tuesday, Sept. 15th. :) Wow! What an amazing step forward in this process! I guess I never really expected to know in advance what day would be her birthday...but it's now right around the corner! We are so excited to welcome our little one into the world and we have a lot of love waiting for her! Tim has been working on some final things at home and I have been doing as much as I can from the couch or kitchen table. Today I cored and diced about 100 tomatoes which Tim then took care of the rest of the canning. We have just about everything checked off our to-do list...it feels good! For most of Sunday we can relax. Monday, we both complete a full day of work before leaving bright and early on Tuesday morning for the birth of our baby.

Early in our pregnancy we hired a doula to help us with labor assistance. Since it doesn't appear we are going the labor route (not by choice or without trying all other means!), our Doula has given us the option of being there for the c-section and post-op, or for a post-partum trade out. We have decided to have her with us for the c-section and post-op. She will be an extremely important person in keeping us calm and collected while I'm prepped for the operating room. She will be in the O.R. with us, allowing someone to always be by my side and then she will stick around afterwards to get the bonding process going with our little one, help get breastfeeding established, and just help out in general. I am so happy to have someone with us who has supported this type of situation and knows Tim and I. I know the nurses will be simply amazing, but we are really another patient to them. Our doula knows us as people.


I had planned on having music during labor, but since the c-section was planned, I gave up on the idea. Our doula suggested that we still plan to have music and keep the mood relaxed with dimmed lights, etc. for the pre-op. I'm working now on the music compilation. I'm keeping it upbeat/relaxed to stay positive. Between Tim, myself, and our doula - we will make the c-section a positive experience, considering it's major surgery! I pray that all goes safely and well and that the recovery is quick and comfortable. Also, that our little one is healthy and happy when she arrives!

The day is almost here!

Moderate Bed Rest in the U.P.

Wow - life's plans have taken a bit of a different direction this past week. At my last Dr. appointment my blood pressure was up, so now I'm on "moderate" bed rest. This means that I'm supposed to be at home relaxing, sitting, no errands, no chores, etc. Thankfully, my employer has been so flexible with me and is allowing me to work from home full-time on my laptop. Working from home is actually going very well, feeling productive and accomplished. Also, at the last appointment, we found out that our dear daughter is still quite comfortable in her breech position. We did a lot of homeopathic attempts to have her turn prior to this revelation, and nothing worked. So, our next option was to go in for an external version to have them attempt to manually turn her. They tried with all their might for 45 minutes and she didn't want to budge. So, at this time, she's still breech. Unless she turns on her own, we will be scheduling a c-section. This has been a bit defeating to me, but I understand that we need to do what is the best route for safe delivery and that our goal outcome is a healthy baby! We have all the love in the world waiting for her when she arrives!

Over labor day weekend was our last opportunity to go visit our favorite place before baby arrives, White Sky Woods. We left on Friday evening so we would have a few full days instead of traveling Saturday morning. Our trip was so well needed. Since I'm on moderate bed rest, I did nothing but relax. We read, listened to NPR, played games, napped. Tim finished one last thing on the outhouse to have it winter ready. It was a great weekend to unwind, relax physically and mentally, and slow down the pace of life before our baby arrives. Here is my favorite photo from the weekend. I took this when I woke up from an outdoor nap under the apple tree. The sun was shining so brilliantly illuminating the leaf. Oh, we also saw our friend - Paulie the Porcupine! He was chilling out up in one of the Aspen trees.